I love the television series The Wire. There are others who rate Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones highly but for me nothing beats The Wire. The series brought to the world’s attention the talent of so many superb actors, among them Idris Elba, Michael B Jordan, Sonja Sohn, Wendell Pierce and Malcolm Williams.
Every character has such deep and real backstories that they could command their own show. The dialogue is gritty and real.
The real genius of The Wire is how it explains corruption by peeling back the various layers of society and how they work for the benefit of one another that results in corruption becoming not just endemic but an integral part of how society is structured. Career ambition in the police or a politician fundraising for their campaign, inter-departmental competition and so forth work at times with and against one another, ultimately feeding and assisting the criminals and corruption.
The Wire is my guide as I catch the goings on and bombshells in the Madlanga Commission. I can relate or rather, better understand, how turf battles in the police, anger for not getting a promotion, junior members trying to curry favour with seniors and those seniors also possibly doing the bidding of others a lot more senior than them.
As the Madlanga Commission moves from Tshwane and Ekur-huhleni to the national sections of the police, we, South Africans, may be entertained but it is a tragedy.
We listen to the ridiculousness of witnesses who are adept at avoidance and obfuscation but cannot show us a commitment to the job they were hired to do.
The commission seems to confirm our worst nightmares about our inability to be good, honest and committed professionals.
Of course, we love the commissioners — retired Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga who is assisted by advocates Sesi Baloyi and Sandile Khumalo. The evidence leaders, who are essentially prosecutors, make us feel better about ourselves. They come across as the consummate professionals, who are aware of their commitment to be ethical and to jealously guard their integrity.
Before the Madlanga Commission, there was a sense of exasperation and forlornness when it came to presidential commissions. The term “commission fatigue” was coined. But the Madlanga Commission has won back the public’s trust in the usefulness of commissions.
The quarterly reports have assisted in this regard. Based on the reports and the testimony recorded, authorities have been able to begin arresting and charging some of the leading actors. The much-maligned Ekurhuleni municipality must be complimented for taking the lead and being the first to show that you can act on the evidence and argument presented in the commission.
But as good as the commissioners and evidence leaders have been, there is the nagging thought that it may be easier to judge and prosecute than to be judged.
Or is it that we do not do well with power? When we have it, we use it for selfish benefit and operate like those who came before. You know the classic Orwellian illustration in his seminal political satire book, Animal Farm, that the pigs that overthrew the farmers walked on two legs and became their oppressors.
Is this our destiny, to repeat the same mistakes of post-colonial countries the world over? Why can’t we emulate the successes, rather than the mistakes? What is so difficult to change our course to that of a better life for all?
In The Wire, all the main characters, the one’s you sympathise with and despise, are racial stereotypes. The white international drug dealers who dance around their dinner table and break plates are Greek, the street drug dealers are African-American, the corrupt trade unionists are Polish and so forth.
The accused or the ones in the commission who have something to explain, always seem to move with the assumption of stereotyping whomever they are dealing with. The senior officer in the police stereotypes the junior as one who is hungry to please and looking for easy money and therefore pliable.
It was in the cross-examination of the members of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) that revealed for me the danger of racial stereotyping.
The racial makeup of the Idac witnesses and senior staff was reminiscent of the 1980s when Winnie Mandela accused an “Indian cabal” in the United Democratic Front of targeting her. We must question why Idac easily accepted the accusations by the ministry and an MP that Crime Intelligence, with its access to financial resources, must be corrupt. Accusations that seem to be without any substantiation. It screamed racial profiling to me.
Hence, they did not expect that a young black African woman from the private sector would have the necessary qualifications to get a job in Crime Intelligence and labelled her a receptionist and “token appointment”. Neither did they bother to properly check the job advertisement, her qualifications, nor the police human resource directives.
Yes, it may have been a turf battle in the police. But they believed they could act because it was black Africans who occupied the positions. Every post-colonial state in Africa has stereotyped black Africans as those who are prone to stealing and pillaging from the state, besides having “zipper” problems.
It is not just a matter of class, in the Marxist sense but also race. We easily adopt the stereotypes cultivated and taught to us by our European oppressors. Unfortunately, many of us succumb to the stereotype with bling lifestyles.
As the numbers of black Africans in positions of responsibility increase, while we learn of increasing instances of corruption, society remembers what our former oppressors said about us: we are thieves and cannot be trusted. Algerian revolutionary Frantz Fanon and Black Consciousness Movement founder Steve Biko warned of self-hate. We seem to be doing everything we can to live up to every racist’s fantasy.
It is true that a lot of the blame can and should be laid at the doorstep of politicians, especially the ANC.
Also look around though, nearly every black South African person, especially those who have not been corrupt but have been successful, comes from a family associated with and a part of the broader ANC-led movement. The implosion of the ANC, which seems to be happening in real time, is destroying black pride and values.
Black values is what we struggled for when fighting against colonialism and apartheid. Black values
are non-racialism, non-sexism, unity and equality. Today it is being replaced by selfishness, greed, anger and hatred.
We need to be harsh with ourselves and our friends like we claim to be with our leaders. You raise the standards not by raising the roof but rather by raising the floor. Our focus cannot just be the commissioners because they soothe our collective conscience.
If we do not raise the bar substantially to what it means to be African, to be black and to be proudly South African, then we will destroy a country we claim to love.
We must not be the failures our oppressors always wanted us to be.
Donovan E Williams is a social commentator. @TheSherpaZA on X (formerly Twitter).